[스포츠니어스 | 김현회 기자] Is Seok Hyun-joon’s explanation truthful?
Seok Hyun-joon, who is on the Military Manpower Administration’s list of military service evaders, explained through his SNS that he had no intention of evading military service. On the 30th, Seok Hyun-joon posted a post on his Instagram and said, “There have been many rumors of military service avoidance and naturalization, but nothing like that happened.” At the same time, he said, “It was delayed due to unavoidable circumstances, but my heart and mind to fulfill my military service have always remained the same.”
He said, “As of today, after the police and prosecution investigations, my military service issue has gone to the court and I am waiting for a trial, so I can now reveal my position.” and tried to send . However, the club ignored the letter of cooperation in order to send it only to clubs that pay high transfer fees, and due to this, they missed the time to return to Korea and go to business. However, last summer, when there was only one year left on the contract and I was able to afford the penalty, I paid the penalty for military service and terminated the contract.”
At the same time, Seok Hyun-joon said, “Currently, we are waiting to fulfill our national defense obligations in an invincible state. Misunderstandings arose because I was unable to do so at the time when I was supposed to complete my military service,” he said. It seemed as if he was trying to evade the army by not expressing any position. I apologize once again for not fulfilling my military service at the right time and causing unnecessary misunderstandings. I will fulfill my national defense obligations as soon as possible,” he concluded. Seok Hyun-jun was included in the list of military service evaders released by the Military Manpower Administration in 2020, and later lost in the first trial of an administrative lawsuit filed against the Military Manpower Administration.
Seok Hyeon-jun, born in 1991, should have entered Korea in 2018
However, there are many parts that are not understood in Seok Hyun-jun’s explanation. Seok Hyun-joon said through his statement that he wanted to go to the military and tried to terminate the contract with the club, but the club insisted that he would not release the contract unless he was transferred to a club that paid a high transfer fee. Words such as ‘a letter of cooperation’, ‘ignore’, ‘high transfer fee’, and ‘penalty’ appeared. The club Seok Hyun-jun is talking about here is the French League Troyes. Seok Hyun-jun blamed the club. However, looking back on the past even a little, Seok Hyeon-joon’s explanation cannot help but tilt his head. It is fortunate that he mustered up the courage to take a position at this point, but it is regrettable that the content was more of an excuse than an explanation.
Hyunjun Seok was born in 1991. He had to come to Korea in the summer of 2018 to enlist in the Armed Forces Sports Unit to resolve military issues. This is because support for the Armed Forces Sports Unit is only available until the age of 27. This year, those born in 1995 rode the so-called ‘last train’ to Sangmu, so looking back in time, Seok Hyun-jun, born in 1991, should have enlisted in 2018. After that, he is not eligible to apply for the Armed Forces Sports Unit. According to the regulations, he must return to the Korean stage six months in advance to perform in order to join the Armed Forces Athletic Corps. If he joined the K-League in the transfer market in the summer of 2018 and applied for managing director in the winter of 2018, there was no reason Seok Hyun-joon, who boasts a brilliant career, could not be selected as managing director.
However, Seok Hyun-jun voluntarily signed a long-term contract with the club at this time. When Seok Hyun-joon joined Porto in 2016, he signed a long-term contract of four and a half years until 2020. Seok Hyun-jun himself would have known better than anyone else that by 2020, he would miss the qualifications to enlist in Sangmu. Even at a time when his colleagues born in 1991 were struggling with the same issue of military service, Seok Hyun-jun signed a long-term contract with Sangmu, well beyond the age of enlistment. Was Seok Hyun-joon, who belonged to several well-known teams in Europe, confident that he could solve the problem of military service? However, Seok Hyun-jun was selected as a wild card for the Rio Olympics in June 2016, but he failed to win a medal and did not receive military service benefits. It was too big a gamble.
In the summer of 2018, Hyunjun Seok signed a 4-year contract.
Afterwards, Seok Hyun-joon could not find a place in his team and moved around on loan. He moved to Trabzonspor in Turkey and Debrecen in Hungary before moving on loan to Troyes in France in 2017. At that time, Seok Hyun-jun signed a full transfer condition after a one-year lease with Troyes. Seok Hyeon-jun agreed to a complete transfer clause after renting Troyes. At the time, Seok Hyun-joon signed a clause allowing a three-year contract after the lease, and a year later, on June 1, 2018, he accepted Troyes’ offer and agreed to a three-year contract. His contract was until June 2021. Seok Hyun-jun missed the opportunity to return to Korea with a long-term contract with Troyes in June 2018. He has a contract, and during the term of the contract, he shouldn’t blame the team for not letting him go.
In a situation where Troyes was relegated to the second division at the time, he signed a long-term contract with Seok Hyun-jun and sold him to Reims right away. At the same time, Seok Hyun-jun signed a 4-year contract with Reims again. At the time, Reims was a team that had just been promoted to the first division. It was the path Seok Hyun-joon himself chose. The summer of 2018 was the last time for Seok Hyeon-joon to make up his mind and return to Korea and enlist in the Armed Forces Sports Unit. However, after signing the contract himself, Seok Hyun-jun was bound to Reims until June 2022. This is why Seok Hyun-joon’s statement through this statement, “I, who have the duty of national defense, have made efforts to terminate contracts with overseas clubs, such as sending letters of cooperation,” is inconsistent.
Afterwards, Seok Hyun-jun moved back to Troyes in February 2020 after failing to fill the four-year contract period with Reims and being pushed out of the competition for the starting position. He then agreed to a new contract with Troyes, extended to June 2023. Seok Hyun-joon was an unfiltered person who had to return to Korea before April 1, 2020. In March 2020, the Military Manpower Administration gave Seok Hyeon-jun an opportunity to explain himself in a situation where he was about to violate Article 94 of the Military Service Act (Overseas Travel Permission Obligation), but Seok Hyun-jun did not. Seok Hyeon-joon, who stayed abroad without an explanation until he turned 28 after receiving permission to travel abroad, was listed on the list of 2019 military duty evaders released by the Military Manpower Administration in December 2020 for the reason of “returning to Korea within the permitted period.”
Different steps from Kwon Chang-hoon, Gu Seong-yoon, and Seok Hyun-jun
If you look at Seok Hyeon-joon’s statement again, it is more difficult to understand. Seok Hyun-joon said, “As I am obliged to defend the country, I have been working hard, such as sending letters of cooperation to terminate contracts with overseas clubs. However, the club ignored the letter of cooperation in order to send it only to clubs that pay high transfer fees, and due to this, they missed the time to return to Korea and go to business. However, last summer, when there was only one year left on the contract and I was able to afford the penalty, I paid the penalty for military service and terminated the contract.” After signing a long-term contract with the club himself, he was put on the list of those who evaded military service and asked the club to terminate the contract. There is no reason for the club to accept the termination of the contract while understanding Seok Hyun-joon’s military problems in a situation where he has already paid the down payment and even has a contract.
Seok Hyun-joon’s claim that he paid a penalty and terminated the contract with one year remaining has little to do with his will to fulfill his military service obligations. From the moment Seok Hyun-jun signed long-term contracts with Porto in 2016 and Troyes in 2018, he was in a position to avoid military service. It was a long-term contract he chose himself, and the claim that “the club did not release the contract unless it was a transfer to a club that paid a high transfer fee” is inevitably attributed to the club. It was Seok Hyun-jun’s choice, not the club’s power-hungry. Controversy began when he signed a long-term contract with an overseas club in a situation where the military service issue was not resolved. As only Seok Hyeon-jun himself would know, it is questionable whether he bet everything on the benefits of military service by being selected as a wild card in international competitions and winning medals.
It is unfortunate that a player who continued to challenge on the European stage is in a difficult position due to military service issues. But this is the same duty given to all players. It’s a pity that Seok Hyun-jun himself was in the summer of 2018, but he should have stopped the challenge for a while. Kwon Chang-hoon was like that, and Gu Sung-yoon was like that too. Kwon Chang-hoon, who advanced to Europe wearing a French Dijon uniform in 2017, returned to Suwon Samsung in May of last year after 4 years and 4 months. This is because he had to return to the domestic stage at this time to enlist in Sangmu in December 2021. At the time, Kwon Chang-hoon was selected as a wild card for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and could have aimed for a special military service, but the Tokyo Olympics was postponed to July 2021 due to the aftermath of Corona 19.
Do you apply for asylum only by trusting the words of a foreign agent?
Kwon Chang-hoon chose to return to Suwon Samsung in May 2021 and join Kim Chun Sang-mu with tears in his eyes rather than gamble his entire soccer life at the Olympics to be held in July 2021. When Kwon Chang-hoon left Dijon, France, and moved to Freiburg, Germany in June 2019, he signed a two-year contract until June 2021. He figured out in advance that June 2021 was the point at which he had to return to the K-League to enlist in the Armed Forces Athletic Corps at the age of 27, and decided on the contract period. If there is an opportunity to receive military service benefits before the end of the contract period, the plan was to discuss the renewal of the contract later. He signed a long-term contract at the age of 27 and said, “I couldn’t fulfill my defense duty because the club didn’t terminate the contract,” and it was a different move.
Goalkeeper Gu Sung-yoon, who played for the J-League Consadole Sapporo, terminated his contract with the club in May 2020 and joined Daegu FC. At the point where the J-League could not resume in the aftermath of Corona 19, after consultation with the Consadole Sapporo club, his contract was terminated and he joined Daegu FC. And Daegu FC terminated the contract with Gu Sung-yoon the day after he was discharged, allowing him to return to Consadole Sapporo. It was the result of a win-win agreement between the two clubs and Gu Seong-yoon. If it’s an expedient, it’s an expedient, but everyone understands this enough. Wouldn’t it be unprofessional for a player who has not been able to solve military problems, and blames the contract for the club after signing a long-term contract just before reaching the age of support for managing director?
In an interview with ‘Sports Korea’ on the 31st, Seok Hyun-joon said, “I worked with a foreign agent, and he said, ‘There is a way to legally postpone military service and get a passport.’ He believed it and he signed it, but it turned out that it was a ‘refugee application’.” Seok Hyun-jun is a veteran who has been a pro since 2009. He is also an adult over thirty. He knows better than anyone else that he is responsible for the contracts he has written. But how should he accept that he was tricked by a foreign agent into signing the contract and accepting an act that he did not even know was a ‘refugee application’. It is not the point here that his team did not release the contract and demanded a large transfer fee even though the contract period was over, and that he was tricked into signing the contract by believing only the words of his agent. The problem was that he signed a long-term contract himself even though military problems were right in front of him.
Blame the club, blame the contract, blame the agent
In addition, Seok Hyun-jun’s parents obtained permanent residency in Hungary in 2017 and claimed that it was an overseas migration, but this claim was dismissed in May 2019 at the Central Administrative Appeals Commission’s administrative judgment. The judge said, “I submitted a housing lease contract in Hungary as evidence, but it was not easy to understand that Mr. It is difficult,” he said. “Even though my father established a corporation in Hungary, there has been no practical profit-making activity for more than three years, which is in contrast to the background of obtaining permanent residency for business purposes. Looking at this, it seems to be a formal measure of requesting an extension for the purpose of delaying Mr.
Afterwards, Seok Hyun-jun’s father said in an interview with ‘Yonhap News’, “Everything happened because of my greed as a parent. We never thought of avoiding military service,” he said about the reason for not playing for the 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Incheon Asian Games team, “I know that the agent at the time did not provide the correct information to Seok Hyun-jun. It wouldn’t have been a situation where his team could easily let Seok Hyun-joon go,” he said. Seok Hyun-joon blamed the club, the contract, and the overseas agent, and his father apologized for the loss in the administrative lawsuit after his application for permission to move abroad was denied. Seok Hyun-joon never opened up about this. And on the last day of 2022, he conveyed his position through his SNS.
In Seok Hyun-joon’s statement, there is only an excuse without controversy over his evasion of military service. Returning to Korea in a situation where there was no way to move abroad or avoid military service anymore, he was driven by the crowd, and now he announced his position that he would “fulfill the duty of national defense as soon as possible.” His statement was disappointing both in terms of timing and content. Also, in relation to this work, reactions such as “It’s okay because I decided to go to the military even late” or “If you can get rid of the military, it’s right, but why are you making a problem with Seok Hyun-joon?” are dangerous. The phrase “withdrawal of the military if possible” is only possible when seeking exemption from military service within legal boundaries. Also, it is natural that there is a lot of resistance to the conscription system in Korea, and I feel sorry for this reality, but it is also difficult to be seen as if only Seok Hyun-joon is the victim of the conscription system.
Seok Hyun-joon’s explanation, both the content and timing are regrettable
After being on the list of military service evaders, Seok Hyun-joon’s passport was invalidated. When his contract with Troyes ended, his stay abroad itself was a difficult situation. At this point, he complained to the club, terminated the contract with one year remaining, paid the penalty, and insisted that he had no intention of avoiding military service. He did not express his position after being accused of evading military service in 2020, but returned to Korea after two years and opened his mouth for the first time. On April 28, 2021, Director of the Military Manpower Administration Jeong Seok-hwan directly mentioned Seok Hyun-jun’s name and said, “Seok Hyun-jun’s passport was invalidated. He also said, “I hope that he will be able to return to Korea as soon as possible and fulfill his military service after being punished.” Perhaps Seok Hyeon-joon has already come back too far to blame the contract, the club, and the agent.
footballavenue@sports-g.com